Core charges

Why do parts stores charge a core charge when you bring in the old parts before you take the new part? I purchased two rear calipers for a neighbors 1969 Corvette. The calipers were $64 each , but the core charge was $80 each. In Ohio, for some reason, sales tax is not refunded on a core charge. This cost my neighbor $13. I asked the counterman why I was being charged a core charge when I brought in the cores when I bought the new parts. He said that is store policy. This happens at all of the part stores around here. This kid stated that the state of Ohio required a core charge. I asked him if he understood the reason for a core charge. He said "Yes, it's a tax the state charges". I explained to him that a core charge is charged so that they get the old part back so that it can be rebuilt and resold. He said that he never heard of that!

 

So your standing there with the cores, and were charged the core charge? Nah that kid didn't know what he was doing, now way in hell that's right

 

They will not give you the parts without adding the core charge to the receipt. At all of the parts stores around here, if the part has a core, the computer automatically puts it on the receipt and deducts it if you have the old part. I really can't understand that and I also don't understand why Ohio doesn't refund sales tax on core charges. If I return something in Ohio, I get a full refund on sales tax, but not the tax on the core charge.I did complain about it a an Auto Zone and the manager took off the $12 that I wasn't going to get back in taxes. How is it in other states?

 

Same way here in Michigan! I complain at every part store every time I get a part that has a core charge!

That $80 core charge seems a bit high though, maybe because it was for rear calipers for a Corvette? If the other core charges there are as high then that's where things are getting out of control because the higher the core charge the higher the tax they collect!

 

Washington used to do the same, until some pitchforks were raised!!
Now you get the tax back so no need to charge the core charge if you have the old parts.

 

Here in CA you get the tax back and you are not charged any tax f you bring the cores in at the time of purchase.

 

And here I thought I lived in the land of 10,000 taxes lol. We always get all our core and any tax charged refunded.


Keith

 

In Maine we also pay a 5.5% sales tax on all cores. This is why they charge the core on the invoice even if you are turning it in. The total of the parts and cores are taxed, then they refund the core $ but never the tax. That's fine if you are buying a relatively inexpensive part, but if you are buying a $30,000 engine for a tractor, it becomes a major cost factor. When a vehicle is sold new, the tax is paid. This should be the end of it, but here every time that vehicle or boat, camper, bike, sled, etc. is sold, the tax must be paid again! If it is bought and sold 8 times, the sales tax is paid 8 times, based on the selling price. Not cool

 

The core charge is added then subtracted if the old part is present, in order to be added to the store's inventory, if the core doesn't get scanned into the cores sent back to the ware house the store loses the core $$$

 

I'm a bit fuzzy on what is being said here; if the new item's price is $60 and the core charge is $20, the bill should be $60 plus the tax on the $60 if you give the dealer the core at the time of purchase. If you don't have the core with you, the price should be $80 with the entire amount being taxable. When you return the core the $20 should be refunded as well as the tax previously collected on it. If not, you are being fleeced for the amount of the tax. If this is the case, I would contact the state's attorney-general and or the department in charge of taxation and ask for a copy of the law.

 

In Ohio, if the part is $60 and the core is $20, you're taxed on $80. You get your $20 back when you return the core, but not the tax on the $20. The problem is, in the case of my $64 calipers, there was a $160 core charge, which is $13 tax on the core that you don't get back. I had my neighbors old calipers in my hand when I bought the new ones. The parts store still charges the core charge. It's put on the receipt and then deducted on the receipt. This results in paying $13 extra tax.

 

But if you bring the core with you when you buy the new part, the core charge should be entered as $0 and subtracted as $0. That way they would know that they received the core and you wouldn't be charged the tax on the core.

 

That is messed up! Sounds like too many politicians with too much time on their hands and too little revenue to pay off all their sexual assault cases.

 

As a result of added tax base (new construction)our County will collect $9 million more in taxes than it did last year. Still gonna raise the real property tax rate by 2 cents per hundred of evaluation. We live in interesting times.

 

Yes, it absolutely is messed up! Maine has been taxing cores for at least 65 years or more. Does not matter if the core is at home still on the vehicle, or in your hands at the parts counter, the core charge is added to the price of the parts and ALL of it is taxed, and you never get the tax back, only the core charge itself. When I sold heavy duty parts for 19 years, I had to get into many, many explanations for why this takes place. Most people thought it was the company that I worked for, but its the law of the state. It's a real treat trying to explain to a wrench turner that he has tp pay 5.5% tax on $1200 worth of brake shoe cores, or whatever the case may be.

 

Wow. I've been in the parts business for exactly 40 years now, and this is the first I heard of not getting your tax refunded on the amount of tax paid on cores! I can't even wrap my head around as to how the states can get away with that.
Here when a person has the core at time of purchase we bill out the core and then credit it on the same invoice. It charges them the tax on the core and credits them the tax charged on the core. Same when they don't have the core and they return later...they get the tax credit on the core.
Reason we bill out the core no matter what and then credit it is, it creates a history of the returned cores. Not for core inventory, rather for a report that is created at the time of the stores core returns to the DC.

 

Here is an example we did just this morning.
Although somewhat of a confusing example because the customer is returning the reman part as new and he had gotten credit on the core at time of purchase so we had to charge back the core to him because the computer will automatically charge a core, or in this case automatically credit the core.
And then he bought a belt on same invoice.
All to keep that report accurate.

 

If I remember correctly, Georgia only taxes the part. If a customer bought a $100 item with a $40 core, at 8% tax his purchase would total $148, and then his core return would be $40 when it came back. (It seems I remember doing ‘core exchange’ on the invoice always dropped the total exactly the core amount.)
Patrick